Hope Of A Hello
by Salvatoreboys4ever
Summary: ONB Post Finale Part 2 One shot- Damon is reeling with in his grief over losing his brother. His nightmares threaten to pull him further into despair reliving his brother's death. He is clinging to Elena in his bed, while she is still trapped in the sleeping beauty spell. But fate smiles on him in the way of an unexpected gift and soothing comfort that he is so desperately seeking.


A/N; First of all I promise the authors note will never be as long as the first one. I just wanted to make sure people didn't think I just up and deleted the story that many followed and favorited. I would have had all these stories up over the weekend but fanfiction was having issues and I couldn't post or even edit since Friday night.

Almost 100 more people have seen part 1 of this series now compared to the over 500 that saw it just after the finale so that makes me happy that more people are finding it!

I welcome ideas and would love for you guys to share ideas of certain scenes you would like to have me write out in here for you. So please put your ideas in a review or multiple ones to give me an idea what parts of their lives and the other characters lives that you would like to see. Right now we are at the point with Stefan's funeral and the grieving and Elena waking up and comforting Damon. Caroline grieving and Bonnie too technically since she lost Enzo. So I'd love ideas for stories that I can do as one shots as they grieve and start moving on. We will get to the proposal, wedding and babies yet later!

But enough talk. On to the story!

Rated M for Language

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Damon tossed and turned laying in his bed, snuggled up to Elena. He had been trying to sleep all night. Part of him was scared that she might never wake up. Katherine was gone, Kai was gone. How could they break the curse? Bonnie had stopped the hellfire but was she okay? He knew he should have been checking on her too. But he wanted to wait till morning. After they had been through so much, he just needed time to cry and time to be close to his love, even if she could not touch and hold him back. Part of him already knew that Bonnie must still be alive, because his love was still in her coma. But the deepest, aching part of him was just hoping beyond hope that somehow the process of her waking was already started and it was just taking awhile to fully break the spell.

He had fallen asleep with one arm around her waist, the other hand with his fingers tangled with hers and his lips on her neck. Even with her in her sleeping state, her presence and her laying with him soothed him so much. His eyes fell closed again and he hoped and pleaded with his subconscious that this time he would not be taken to another nightmare.

When he opened his eyes next... he was back in the tunnels, with Stefan and Katherine. It felt like he was watching all three of them, not from his body but from an outside source. Yet somehow he could feel what he was feeling right then standing in front of his brother.

 _"Are you seriously going to sit here and argue with me about who needs this redemption more?! You are not responsible for Enzo, Stefan!" he heard himself say angrily. He wanted to do this for him and Caroline. He needed to do this for Elena, to pay back from all his past mistakes._

 _Stefan's eyes were full of pain. It looked like his guilt was strangling him from the inside out. He looked so lost, like a little boy that could do nothing right when all he wanted was to be loved... when he looked like he didn't even love himself._

 _"You keep saying that, but you're wrong!" Stefan snapped back at him. "We are all responsible for our actions! Every drop of blood that I've spilled...I am accountable for."_

 _Damon turned away from him trying to hold back his frustration at his damn brother's endless martyr complex, but then spun right back to him, his eyes wide with shock at what he was hearing. "Then I'm accountable too. I've spilled even more!"_

 _Stefan looked so weak, so defeated as he spoke. "Damon, I'm human. In 60 years I'm going to be old. I'm going to be dead. You have quite literally an eternity with Elena ahead of you."_

 _"Which means a lot less without you!" Damon argued back instantly. He felt like his emotions were ripping him back and forth between, being angry at his brother and the endless pain at even the thought of a future without him._

 _"Do you think I want this?" Stefan questioned him sadly, his purely human eyes ready to spill tears as he spoke. "I just got married." He stepped closer to him, his face full of sorrow. "My wife is out there, waiting for me to come home to her."_

 _Damon's eyes were pained with the realization of what Stefan was saying. He could not even look at him right then, as his words cut deep, knowing how much his brother was giving up. But he wasn't done._

 _Stefan's tone was low, his voice aching with regret. "But in the nearly two centuries since I turned you into a vampire, I have fought to turn you into the man that deserves the happiness that is out there...right now."_

 _Damon shook his head back and forth and could feel the tears pooling at his dark lashes, his eyes back on his brother, rejecting that he deserved any kind of happiness, any kind of future. "No," he said emphatically._

 _"Let me do this...for you," Stefan pleaded._

 _"No," Damon replied again, even more sure of his decision. Stefan had already done so much for him. He saved him from dying from the wolf bite, from the hybrid's killing him if Klaus was killed, and so much more that his head could not even focus enough to remember right then. But he was sure as hell not dying for him._

 _Stefan grabbed his arm, his eyes glassy with tears. "Then let me...do this...for me," he begged him as his tears were ready to spill down his cheeks._

 _Damon felt his own tears blur his vision as he looked his only brother up and down, memorizing him standing there like that, alive and seeing how far they had come as brothers, would help the pain of losing him in any way. He gritted his teeth, scrunched up his face, fighting the urge to just yell at him how stupid it was for him to think he should save him again. But he bit his tongue, seeing all over Stefan's face how badly he needed this, for all the suffering he had caused._

 _"I love you, little brother," he said, his tone resigned to accept Stefan's plea, his voice strained with emotion. His eyes locked on Stefan's as he nodded to him how true that statement really was. It had never been more true than right at that moment. He did love him, so much. And losing him after they had finally become the brothers they had been before Katherine, was heart wrenching to even think about._

 _Stefan's lips tugged up in a small smile. "I love you too." He looked happy even, that Damon was letting him do this._

 _Damon put his hands on his brother's shoulders. "And you are right. You are human..."_

 _He had made up his mind. As hard as this was going to hurt both of them, it was the right thing to do. He cringed, knowing what he had decided. Hating himself for taking this away from Stefan, but had to do it. He saw a brief look of confusion in the blonde human's eyes. "Which is why I can do this….Go,"_

 _Stefan fought his hold on him, instantly realizing what he was doing. "No, Damon, don't..." But it was too late. The compulsion took hold and he was powerless under his coercive stare._

 _He held tight to his shoulders as he looked deep into his eyes. "You are going to walk out of these tunnels, and you are not going to stop... until my death breaks that compulsion, because I am the big brother."_

 _He grabbed the back of Stefan's head forcefully, his eyes focused and determined on his and then the tears almost slip down his cheek as his humanity, the part of him he had fought to hide for so long, overwhelmed him. "I'm sorry I wasn't better at it until now."_

 _Stefan's eyes were wet with unshed tears as Damon say him listening, helpless to do anything to stop him. The pain and the knowledge that this was the last moment he would have with his brother made his very soul ache as he pushed him back._

 _"I said go! Go!" he snarled angrily. He did not know how much longer he could hold it together. He didn't know how long they had and he prayed it wasn't too late for Stefan to get to safety and be back in his wife's arms. He needed to go now!_

 _Damon saw his brother's eyelashes flutter as he saw that he could feel and see what he was about to do even though he could not stop himself from resisting the compulsion. Stefan nodded at him slowly in despair. They stared at each other for a few pain filled, silent moments and Damon felt like he could collapse with grief just watching his baby brother look back up to him. His eyes for one split second were full of hope that Damon would stop this, before he turned, defeated and walked away from him._

Damon shook his head, still dreaming as he was snuggled up next to Elena in his bed. The next scene he saw was his last moments with Katherine.

 _She had woken up again after Stefan had left and he held her tight against his chest, the bone dagger at her heart. He smirked as he waited. "Not long now, demon spawn."_

 _Katherine kept struggling in his arms, but he was far too strong for her as a human. She seemed to get weaker each time they sent her back to hell with the dagger so she was no match for him. "I can hear that fire coming back this way." He held her tighter as she desperately fought his grip, knowing what was coming._

 _"You love this, do you?" Katherine gritted out at him, looking first up at him behind her and then watching the tunnels ahead for the signs of the fire._

 _He almost laughed at her, his eyes glaring as he bent his head into her hair to whisper to her, his voice dripping with contempt at all he was losing because of her. "You have no idea."_

 _But then he felt a sting of pain in his shoulder and someone grabbed up the dagger as it slipped from his hands. The other times in his nightmares so far tonight he had not seen this part. Like he might have blocked it out._

 _He blinked slowly, feeling whatever had stabbed him flood through his system, weakening him fast. He felt hands pushing him back into the room beside where the fire would rage. He stood for a half a second staring into his brother's eyes, before falling to the ground._

 _Stefan had come back. Damn him!_

 _No! He tried to scream but his mouth would not even cooperate with his inner cries. "No Stefan, don't!" he begged silently, as he saw him grab Katherine and pull her back up in front of him._

 _Katherine was fighting harder but even with Stefan a human, he held her in place. "Stefan please," she begged him._

 _Stefan's face was strong, his stance powerful and determined. "Burn in hell," Damon heard him whisper to her, as the sound of the fire raging grew._

 _He blinked fighting to stay awake. He could not move at all, but he fought his weakness with everything he had, his gaze locked on his brother till the very last second. But he could not hold his eyes open any longer. He felt them close slowly, as he let out a wail of heartbreak inside for Stefan and for what he was seeing._

 _"Goodbye brother," Damon heard and then there was nothing but the roar of the flames and insane heat as the fire blazed past, taking the woman who nearly destroyed him and the brother who helped put him back together in its vicious, unforgiving clutches to their eternal demise._

 _He screamed inwardly, feeling his heart ripping in two; like they had been twins and he felt his brother's suffering; his death and all the agony that Stefan had endured, as the fire tore apart his body, burning him alive._

 _"No, Stefan!" he whimpered silently, knowing he was already gone. There was nothing he could do to change anything. His brother was gone forever. Then blackness came as he lost all consciousness._

He moved around in bed again, snapping his head back and forth until it rested snuggly against Elena's. The next dream was very different...

 _He felt his muscles aching from the feeling of the cure in his system, changing him, making him mortal. Where was he? He squinted his eyes, feeling them still tender from the heat of the fire. Part of him knew he was dreaming and any sensations would feel like they were from the dream too. But in it, everything looked so real._

 _He blinked and his vision focused more. He saw basketball hoops and the rows of bleachers and the huge gym scoreboard. He was at the high school. But he had just left there when he had found Elena and brought her home with him. Hadn't he? The other part of him wondered if it was in fact a dream at all. What was he doing back there?_

 _Then he thought that maybe Elena could still be trapped there. He stumbled to his feet, feeling every part of him sore and weak and ran to the boiler room to find her, but she wasn't there. He cocked his ears and heard voices a little ways away. He headed closer and closer to the sounds and nearly gasped out loud as he saw his Elena! She was right there, standing in the hall!_

 _He felt all the air sucked out of him in a single second as he stared at her. She had not seen him yet and was staring forward to something past his eye line. Then he heard another voice...it was his brother's. Oh God, Stefan was alive? Elena was awake?!_

 _He was ready to run ahead and barrel right into them in a giant bear hug, thinking he had lost both of them when she spoke again and something in him just froze, listening behind the corner, out of their sight._

 _"What happened? Why am I here right now?" she asked Stefan, trepidation very clear in her voice._

 _Stefan swallowed hard as he looked at her. "I don't know about Bonnie, but Damon...Damon wanted to sacrifice everything to save you, to save this town. He was ready." His voice was low, barely a whisper and Damon strained to hear him from where he was._

 _Elena was looking at him her eyes wide, searching his face to understand what he was saying. She shook her head, not wanting to believe him._

 _"I'm human now." he nodded to her, confirming her shock at what he was saying. "He compelled me to leave." He paused and it looked like he was thinking back to what had happened. "But he should have known better. I would never walk again on this earth as a human, without taking vervain."_

 _Damon was taking in all that Stefan was saying. No wonder he had gotten the jump on him and was able to inject him with the cure. He had not seen him coming at all. He leaned his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes._

 _Then his precious girl spoke again. "I don't understand."_

 _"I gave him my blood. The cure," his brother admitted to her._

 _"You what?" Elena literally gasped out._

 _Stefan was nodding more to her. "Without the cure I'd start to age. I'd be dead soon enough."_

 _Damon could hear the tremble in Elena's voice. "So Damon's okay?" Her voice cracked slightly with the emotion she must have been feeling and he longed to just run out there and show her that he was alive and so desperately wanting her. But he still did not totally understand where here was and he felt her conversation with his brother was very private and he did not want to intrude just yet._

 _Stefan smiled at her through his tears. "He's okay." And Damon heard a muffled sob from her lips._

 _He put his hand to his heart, hardly waiting to be with her again. He missed her so much. And hearing her so scared for him and then full of relief that he was okay made his feelings for her so much stronger._

 _"But...you, you're..." Elena sounded like she already knew._

 _"I did what I had to do," Stefan insisted and Damon could hear his voice waver with more emotion and he could tell his brother was fighting to stay strong as he spoke._

 _"No! No...no Stefan," she cried out. Damon felt a sob building in his own throat as he listened._

 _Stefan stepped closer to her. "Tonight, I saw a side of Damon that I hadn't seen in a while. The older brother I looked up to. The son who enlisted in the civil war to please his father. The Damon I knew when I was a boy." He sounded like he was full of wonder and pride and that everything had worked out the way it was meant to._

 _Damon felt the tears start slipping down his cheeks as he heard some of his brother's deepest thoughts about him. He was far enough that Stefan could not see him, but close enough to watch him trying to choke back more feelings._

 _Stefan smiled at Elena. "I wanted that Damon to live. And I wanted you to have an opportunity to get to know him. He is the better man. He is the right man." Stefan asserted confidently, nodding again, like he knew that he had made the right choice. There was no regret, only sorrow in his voice, even when Elena kept shaking her head. Probably not wanting to believe that he was gone._

 _Damon walked closer. He had to say something. He needed to tell his brother how much what he just said meant to him. He paused again just before revealing himself, seeing Stefan stroking Elena's cheek, wiping away her tears._

 _"It was good to see you Elena. One last time," his brother whispered tenderly to her. They needed this moment. This last goodbye._

 _He saw Elena walk into Stefan's arms, and they held each other. Stefan whispered something to her that he was too far away to hear and he could hear them both holding back more raw feelings._

 _He always knew his brother loved her, so much. But now, standing there watching them say goodbye forever, he truly saw just how much Stefan cared about her and how hard it was for him to leave and never see her again._

 _And she wasn't even his wife. He probably could not even imagine the depth of pain that he would be in if he had a chance to say a real goodbye to Caroline now._

 _Stefan squeezed Elena's hand and Damon saw him force a smile at her as he pulled back and let her go, turning away to walk away._

 _"Stefan wait!" Damon called to him. Whether this was in fact a dream or some alternate reality, he wanted this chance to say a real goodbye too. He saw his brother freeze and then turn back toward the sound of his voice, his face a picture of shock and disbelief._

 _Elena turned too and he heard her cry out at the sound of his voice, letting out a sob. "Damon?" she whispered incredulously._

 _He beamed at her running toward her and spinning her into a hug. She held him so tight and even if this was not real, it sure as hell felt real. She felt soft and warm in his embrace as he held her just as close, cradling her against him. Never wanting to let go._

 _He saw Stefan smiling broadly at them and he pulled back from her, reaching for her hand and giving it a squeeze as he motioned his head to Stefan. She immediately nodded, understanding that he needed to talk to Stefan first, before they both lost him forever._

 _Stefan stepped back toward them, his steps shaky and his arms outstretched. Damon reached his arms just as wide and enveloped his brother in a solid, deep hug. He closed his eyes, just clinging to him as the tears started flowing down his face._

 _Damon could see Elena standing back giving them this time, her head was down and he could see more tears slipping down her cheeks. He was trying to not get sucked into the depth of emotion that he felt literally in the air, with how serious and final everything was feeling._

 _Stefan's grip on him nearly stopped him from breathing. He was human after all. He let his baby brother hold him as long as he wanted and just closed his eyes treasuring every last second of Stefan in his life. He didn't even know if there were words for this moment._

 _When Stefan finally loosened his grip a little he pulled back and looked him right in the eyes his hands again on his shoulders. " I can't believe you did that. You are so stupid you know. You just can't stop saving me." he mumbled. "I gave you a way out. A way to you wife, to a human life and you can't just leave things alone."_

 _Stefan sniffled and wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand. "I'm sorry brother. I just couldn't let you do it. You deserve her and happiness and a future, not me. And I gave you the cure so you two could be a family. Have children, grandchildren."_

 _He reached out and Elena took his one hand and Damon took the other and he pulled them together till their hands were intertwined. "You are the better man Damon. You will make her so happy. I know you will."_

 _Damon tried to fight the smile of how proud of his brother he was as he felt Elena's hand in his, her fingers rubbing against his. He never felt he deserved anything in his life, except for pain and emptiness, hollow affairs and beatings. Stefan had literally placed his whole future in front of him. A future full of hope and the promise of forever love, family and so many memories. He was overwhelmed with gratitude. No one had ever, ever loved him as much as his brother. Stefan had just died for him to be with Elena._

 _He opened his mouth to say something, anything but there seemed to be no words deep enough or meaningful enough to encompass what he was feeling right then. He felt Elena squeeze his hand and he looked up, taking in her beautiful brown doe eyes as she cried silently for all of them_

 _She reached an arm over to Stefan and pulled him in and the three of them hugged and cried. The love triangle was long forgotten. They had all been through so much together, had stood by each other, supported each other, saved each other, came back from hell and beat turning off their humanity and so many more obstacles. Damon felt another sob in his throat as he felt Elena's head against his and then Stefan's too._

 _Elena leaned in and kissed Stefan on the forehead, her hand going across his cheek, wiping his tears. "I will never, ever forget you. You showed me how to live again Stefan. You saved my life in that lake that day and I will remember you forever."_

 _Damon saw his brother smile, his chin quivering as he looked at her. "Yeah little brother. Don't you think we will ever forget you. I will tell our children all about you and how much you meant to us and show them pictures and tell them stories about you. All the crazy crap you pulled to get me in trouble when we were kids. All the embarrassing stories. We will pass it all on."_

 _He saw Elena nod in agreement to him and Stefan laughed giving him a wry smile. "You better name one of your kids after me."_

 _Damon held him by the back of the neck again. This time not compelling him, but smiling at him. "Damn right we will brother." He smirked at him. "Even if it's a girl. Hey guys, meet our daughter Stephanie!" That got another laugh from Stefan as he stuck his tongue out and Elena rolled her eyes and they all hugged once more._

 _Then Stefan pulled back, smiling at them both. "I hate that I will miss all the great things in your human lives. I'll be looking down on you at your wedding, excited to see Elena finish med school and become an amazing doctor. However I don't see much in career choices for your big brother, besides owning a bar."_

 _Damon laughed too. "Oh that was as far as my aspirations went too, in my short time to think about it as a human. I'll let my Lanie here be the breadwinner, big shot doctor," he grinned at her._

 _Now it was Elena's turn to stick out her tongue at him. "Oh really sweetie. Am I to assume you will be home with the kids then, changing diapers and making supper?"_

 _Damon smiled at how light hearted this had become. "Cooking oh yes, anytime. You know I excel at that. Maybe I'll open my own restaurant and bar." He looked back at Stefan making an amused face. "But diapers," he made a world class icky face at Elena. "I'll just hose them off in the backyard. That is as close as I am getting to the kind of gross."_

 _Elena smiled at both of them, laughing and talking about the future. "I am just so sorry they won't get to meet their Uncle Stefan," she whispered. And just like that the mood fell again._

 _Stefan stroked her cheek once more. "I know. I'm so sorry about that too. But you guys will be amazing parents. And I will always be watching you, sharing in your hopes and dreams." He put his hands on both their shoulders and smiled once more. "You guys both deserve so much happiness and when we meet again you have to tell me all about it. Promise?"_

 _Elena and Damon both nodded silently as they watched Stefan back up more and more till he was at the doors to go outside the school. He opened them up and a huge bright light flooded into the hallway and they both put their hands up shielding their faces. Stefan walked into the light and then the doors just shut behind him as they just stood there in each others arms._

 _Damon turned back toward her once his brother was gone and just felt his knees buckling. He wanted so much to go after his brother and not let him leave. He wanted to undo the way things had happened. He wanted to build a fucking time machine and go back and stop him from injecting him with the cure and dying. Hell, he wanted to go all the way back and kill Kai before he could put Elena in his the damn sleeping beauty coma in the first place._

 _He felt her trying to hold him up as his body shook in grief for his brother. He felt the wall at his back and his body just crumpled down to the floor. Elena was trying desperately to hold onto him and help him._

 _"Damon, hey." She shook him, trying to get him to hear her. "Damon, baby. I'm here. Let me in. Tell me how I can help you." Her voice was strong and reassuring and he felt everything but that._

 _He shook his head, his tears flooding back to his eyes. "That is just it. You aren't here. We still have no idea how to wake you up." He smoothed a lock of her hair from her face. "And I need you so much right now baby. I can't..." He felt another damn sob climbing up his throat. He had turned into such a wuss. "I can't lose Stefan..." he looked up at her, his eyes pleading. "And not have you."_

 _Elena climbed into his lap on the floor and wrapped her arms around him."You do have me, Damon. You do." He moaned feeling her so close, so real and his hands went around her hips, slipping slightly under her shirt, pulling her against him. And then she was kissing his forehead and his cheeks and when he leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, she kissed his closed eyes before capturing his lips in the most tender kiss he had ever felt._

 _"M mm, God Elena," he groaned into her mouth and his tongue clashing with hers as he held her tight in his arms. "Baby, I missed you so much. So much." His eyes were glassy with emotion. Not just sorrow and loss, but filled with love and maybe even a tinge of hope. He grinded his body into hers, feeling her curves just melt with his._

 _Elena threw her head back and Damon attacked her neck with urgent, hungry, open mouth kisses. His hands left her hips and buried themselves in her hair as she whimpered his name. Then she pulled his head back up to her face. "You will find a way to bring me back, baby. I know you will."_

 _He nodded to her, "I can't live these next 60 years without you. Life will mean nothing without you," he rasped out as he held her face in his hands. "Come back to me, Elena. Please come back to me." He had tears running in trails down his cheeks and she kissed the tracks the tears had made, licking and sucking on his skin._

 _"Just kiss me Damon and trust that I will come back to you. Our love will find a way. Believe it. Trust it." He nodded at her, his eyes wide and darkened with lust before he plunged his tongue back into her mouth._

 _"Mmm, Damon," she cried out breaking the kiss, as he felt her tugging on his raven locks and press her chest into his. "I love you so much." His heart felt so full at the same time it felt so broken. She could help him heal. He just had to trust that they would find a way to get her back._

 _But then he blinked and felt the room was getting fuzzy, her moans and her touch fading. The dream was fading. No, he could not lose her!_

 _He lifted his head quickly, locking his eyes with hers, "I love you too," he whispered as his thumbs stroked down both sides of her face as her face started disappearing from his view. "Always."_

Then his head flew up, sweat slick on his body as he looked around. It was all just a dream. She was still right there in his arms, but still trapped in the damn spell. He had been holding her hand, his head against hers. Maybe he had entered her mind like that had when all of them said goodbye? When they had their last dance.

Maybe Stefan in his journey from this world had found a way to say good bye to her in her mind. That must have been where he had been.

But now instead of it being a goodbye, could it finally be a hope of a hello?

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A/N; Next time it will be Caroline's first night without her husband and some magic involved for some tender moments.

Did you like the change and that Damon was allowed to say goodbye to Stefan too? That they could all share in an emotional farewell? And then even if in the dream Elena could give him at least some comfort.

Please take that minute to review and tell me your thoughts!


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